Thursday, February 18, 2010

I haven’t made many appearances on this site but the news of yesterday calls for such action. I thought about talking about how great of a day it was for USA Olympians but then I figured I better not because G$ would ban me from the site and hunt me down a lock me in a small damp room with Steven A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and a gun with only two bullets (by the way, I hadn’t heard from either one of these douches in long time but then I made the mistake of flipping the TV over to ESPN2 First Take and there they were still in their afterbirth glory). So, of course, what I want to talk about today is the trade the Cavs made yesterday. You heard G$’s take on it already. He loves it. And while I like it, I’m going to play the bad cop here (without Tony K’s gay hat) and tell you why the Cavs shouldn’t have made the trade.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Cavs have the best record in the league and are playing great together. They chemistry they’ll show is amazing. They truly love playing with each other (not they way you’re thinking Seal) and look out for each other both on and off the court. While I don’t think adding Jamison is going hurt anything much, it could. I’m sure LeBron will have a 30 second hand shake with him before tonight’s game (is he going to be in uniform?) and LBJ will do everything to bring him fully into the team. However, losing Z has to sting in the locker room. The guys know how long he has been here and how much he has gone through, that it could take some wind out of the sail. What I really don’t get is how could Danny Ferry trade him when Nike just made the best commercial of the year with Puppet Z? Now Nike is going to have to stop running those ads for 30 days. That is the true crime.

Mike Brown and his rotation. It took Brown more than a quarter of the season to figure out the best line-up and rotation to use this year. He left Anderson in the starting line-up to long, he didn’t know what to do with Shaq, the guard rotation was a mess, etc. He finally got things settled and then injuries messed it up. Now he has to figure out what to do with Jamison. Obviously he is going to start. So that means it’s him and Shaq at the 4 and 5. Meaning Andy and Hickson are going to have to play together off the bench. I don’t think that’s a good line-up. And what about at the end of the game? It’s going to be Andy at the 5 and Jamison at the 4? What about Shaq? What about Z (assuming he comes back)? Even if Brown figures this out in the next month, what about when Z comes back? Who’s going to lose minutes and are they going to be OK with it? Like G$ told me last night in a text, Mike Brown is own lone weakness. I just hope he figures it out sooner rather than later.

How’s this move set up for next year? If we had landed Amare, (and resigned him) we would have had a core of great players in the mid-late 20s; LeBron, Mo, Andy and Amare. That would have been pretty nice. It also would give us our big man we are going to need next year. But now we have a 33 year old power forward who plays outside, more than likely no Shaq and possibly no Z. Even if Z returns, is the only 7’3” player who plays the majority of his game outside 18 feet. We don’t have any true big man on the roster for next year. But I’m getting a head of myself. Back to this year.

The biggest reason I’m not a huge fan of the trade, more so than interrupting chemistry, more than Mike Brown drawing names out of a hat to see who plays, more than question marks about next year, is now there is no excuse for not winning the NBA Championship. If we don’t make a trade, we could put the blame on Ferry for not making a move to get Jamison or Amare. Now we can’t do that. Everyone seems to think this one move will guarantee a championship. But what if it doesn’t? I’m dreading the day the season ends and I’m not ordering the SI collectable book, basketball, video and magazine while being blackout in Cleveland on the first commercial after the game ends. The season not ending in a ring would have been a disappointment without this move but now it will be a colossal failure. Can you imagine this series of events, Cavs losing in the NBA Finals, Z and Shaq not returning, LeBron signs with the Clippers along with D-Wade, Cavs going 38-42 next year, losing to the Bobcats in the first round of the playoffs, Clippers and LeBron winning a Championship in other part of LA? For all Cleveland’s sake, I hope G$ is right, Jamison = Championship.

With all that being said, I do like the move. We gave up nothing to get an All-Star who will make the team better. But there are still question marks with every move. I just hope I’m wrong on most of them.

I won't lose sleep over it. To be honest the Sonics thing was a bandwagon thing since I've never latched on to any NBA team. Some of these loser Seattle people are still pissed about it for some reason.